GARFIELD — Police blocked off a residential street for several hours on Monday while trying to encourage a wanted man, who authorities believed to be armed, to leave a friend’s house and surrender.

But it turned out that the man was not inside the house and had fled before police descended on the neighborhood.

“We have reason to believe he was here,” said Garfield Capt. Darren Sucorowski. “He wasn’t here when we got here.”

SWAT Team officers, Bergen County Bomb Squad members and emergency service responders staked out the Plauderville Avenue residence, with some officers, standing in the roadway and at another residence across the street, training rifles at the house.

The authorities closed Plauderville Avenue from Shaw to Main Street and were trying to make contact with the man, Sucorowski said. He added that “information was obtained that he may be armed.”

By about 7 p.m., the roadway was reopened to traffic when police searched the house and found the man they are seeking was not there. Some of the officers assigned to the scene earlier left in early evening.

The police received a tip that the man was inside the Plauderville house, where a friend lives, Sucorowski said. After the search, they determined he was no longer in the neighborhood.

About 30 people, mostly neighbors, gathered behind yellow police tape near a family restaurant and a Polish grocery store as officers conducted the investigation. One onlooker said a man allowed police to use his cell phone to try to call the suspect.

A neighbor who said he has lived on Plauderville for more than 50 years said he first saw police in the neighborhood, with their rifles positioned at the house, around 3:30 p.m. Police began winding down the operation at around 6 p.m.

Authorities did not release the man’s name or say what he’s accused of doing.